ISLAMABAD: The Asian Development Bank (ADB) announced on Sunday it plans to expand its support for long-term food and nutrition security in Asia and the Pacific by $26 billion, increasing its total funding commitment for such initiatives to $40bn over the 2022-2030 period.

ADB President Masato Kanda announced the new target during the bank’s annual meeting in Milan, Italy. The expansion builds on the ADB’s September 2022 pledge to provide $14bn by 2025 to ease a worsening food crisis in the region and improve long-term food security.

By the end of 2024, the ADB had committed $11bn — about 80 per cent of the original allocation — with an additional $3.3bn programmed for 2025, the bank said.

“Unprecedented droughts, floods, extreme heat, and degraded natural resources are undermining agricultural production, while at the same time........

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